Osimhen to miss Nigeria's forthcoming friendlies against Ghana and Mali due to injury

SUPER Eagles talisman Victor Osimhen will miss Nigeria's forthcoming international friendlies against Ghana and Mali taking place over the next week after his club revealed that the striker will be kept in Italy to recover from an injury he is nursing.

By far Nigeria's highest profile player at the moment, Osimhen, 25 won the Italian league title for his club Napoli last season, conforming his status as a world class player. Over the weekend, however, he was omitted from Napoli's team that faced Inter Milan at the San Siro in a Serie A league game that ended in a 1-1 draw.

Napoli coach Francesco Calzona, revealed that Osimhen has not been given a clean bill of health to start playing football and is not on the list of players Napoli will be releasing for international duty. He added: “Osimhen has an inflammation of the scar from an old injury.”

Apparently, the Serie A champions are taking precautionary measures not to escalate his injury and will not release Osimhen for Nigeria’s forthcoming friendly matches. Osimhen had missed training sessions and only participated in partial workouts with his teammates during the week.

Nigeria's Super Eagles are scheduled to face Ghana’s Black Stars and the Eagles of Mali in international friendlies on March 22 and 26 respectively, in Morocco. Napoli have been struggling this season and are currently seventh on the league table, so having Osimhen around for their next match against Atalanta will make a huge difference in the team as they pursue European football.

According to an Italian sports media guru Alfredo Pedulla, Napoli have not granted Osimhen permission to join the Super Eagles camp for the upcoming friendly matches. It further added that Napoli are also seeking to negotiate with the Nigerian Football Federation to prevent Osimhen’s involvement in the friendlies.

Mr Pedulla said: “SSC Napoli has communicated, through its official website, the list of Italian players called up by their respective national teams and Victor Osimhen is not among the players involved. The striker will not start for Nigeria to recover from the injury that forced him to stop playing against Inter.”

Italian journalist Pasquale Tina, added:“In this period of national team matches, Napoli will be missing ten players. Osimhen is not well due to fatigue from a scar from a previous injury and the idea is not to let him leave for Nigeria but to leave him in Castel Volturno to work for two weeks, in the hope that his condition will improve.

“Osimhen has not been well and did not train all week. On Sunday he went on the bench more to encourage his teammates than others, so much so that he never warmed up.” Despite missing some matches due to injury and while representing Nigeria at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, Osimhen has scored 13 goals in 24 appearances across all competitions this season.